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Federal Funding For Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Posted on: Saturday, 18 April 2009, 12:45 CDT

The U.S. National Institutes of Health released new stem cell guidelines on Friday that would limit federal funding of the research to embryos left over at fertility clinics and prohibit federal funding of embryos made by cloning or certain other methods, The Associated Press reported.

The institute’s new draft guidelines reflect rules with broad congressional support, excluding more controversial sources such as cells derived from embryos created just for research.

Acting NIH Director Raynard Kington said he believes it was the right policy for the agency at this point in time and it will be a huge boost for the science.

Many researchers wanted to use a broader variety of cells, but the guidelines still mean that perhaps hundreds more stem cell lines will be available for government-funded study in the near future.

Alan Leshner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science said some groups and scientists have wanted the administration to go further.

“But we are happy to have this progress after such a long period of limited opportunities to pursue this very important line of research," he said.

Dr. Sean Morrison, director of the University of Michigan Center for Stem Cell Biology, called the guidelines "a reasonable compromise based on where the science stands now."

He suggested science might want to revisit some of the details down the road, depending on how it develops.

The process of harnessing embryonic stem cells — master cells that can morph into any cell of the body — could one day create replacement tissues and could better treat and even cure a range of medical ailments.

The Bush administration had limited taxpayer-supported research to a small number of embryonic stem cell "lines" or groups already in existence as of August 2001.

President Obama widened the field last month after lifting the Bush administration restrictions . However, he left it to the NIH to set ethics guidelines determining which cell lines will now qualify for government money.

Opponents of human embryonic stem cell research said they believe the federal government and Congress are concealing their true intent.

The National Right to Life Committee said in a statement: "This seeming restraint is part of an incremental strategy intended to desensitize the public to the concept of killing human embryos for research purposes."


Researchers are forbidden under federal law from using taxpayer money to create or destroy an embryo. But rules over working with cells that initially were created using private money have become the central issue.

Many experts in the field were expecting guidelines that would allow for the use of stem cells derived from embryos created specifically for science, perhaps even employing cloning techniques to genetically customize cells for a potential recipient.

But instead the NIH proposed limiting new grants to research using stem cells originally derived from fertility-clinic leftovers, the extra embryos that couples throw out when not needed.

Kington said there is compelling broad support in both the scientific community and the public at large for the fertility-clinic approach, but there is no similar broad support for using other sources.

The woman or couple who donate the original embryo are now required under the guidelines to give proper informed consent.

Other donor options, such as donating the embryo to another infertile woman, must be explained and the donation must be voluntary, without pressure from researchers.

The guidelines also clearly forbid some types of research using human embryonic stem cells, such as mixing them with embryos from monkeys and other primates.

Kington said the NIH funded about $88 million in research last year using embryonic stem cells and it was unclear how much more the agency may spend under the new policy.

Public comments on the guidelines will be welcomed for one month and the NIH will issue the final rules by early July.

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Source: redOrbit Staff

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